Mobile Fidelity - UDSACD 2168 - SACD Hybrid Stereo 

Numbered Limited  Edition - Plays On All CD Players

Half-Speed Mastered by Kreig Wunderlich from the Original Master Tape at MFSL

Mastered on the Mobile Fidelity GAIN 2™  Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD 

 

1974’s Platinum Hotcakes Captures Carly Simon in Playful, Blissful, and Domestic Moods

 

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes: Excellent-Sounding Mobile Fidelity Hotcakes SACD Resonates With Newfound Nuances, Warmth, and Soulfulness 

 

Includes Smash Duet “Mockingbird” With James Taylor and Contributions From Musical Icons Robbie Robertson, Michael Brecker, Bucky Pizzarelli, Dr. John, and More

 

 

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered limited-edition hybrid SACD delivers Hotcakes in audiophile-quality sonics that enhance the laidback music’s warmth, innocence, and sentimentality. Coming from a tranquil place, Simon’s voice emerges with terrific ease, composure, and contentment. Surrounded by ravishing instrumental and jazz-based blends that, thanks to added detail and clearer tones, feel more joyous and spirited than on any prior pressing, Simon’s words take on a reassuring quality conveyed by the best singer-songwriter albums of the era. Consider this stellar-sounding reissue the equivalent of a crackling fireplace on a winter night. Such is the level of coziness and amiability provided.

 

Largely based around Simon’s feelings and experiences before giving birth, Hotcakes wonderfully channels a prevailing attitude during the mid-70s that found many people returning to the basics and getting back in touch with familial surroundings after the upheaval following the end of the Sixties. Simon’s first three albums captured this transition in frank, feminist-inspired, take-no-muss fashion. On Hotcakes, her fourth and second consecutive platinum-selling set, she both reflected and led the dominant spirit of the time, delivering with nursery-rhyme purity and soothing tenderness playful songs about homey euphoria and marital glee.

 

Anchored by the duet with her then-partner James Taylor, “Mockingbird,” a cover that the power couple took into the Top Five, Hotcakes shuns any tension or negativity in favor of optimism, intimacy, and tranquility. Standout fare such as “I Think I’m Gonna Have a Baby” and the Simon-Taylor penned “Forever My Love” testify on behalf of personal bonds and the importance of love. Similarly, “Mind on My Man,” the husband-focused “Misfit,” and humorous “Safe and Sound”—a theme-setting opener that describes much of the world in disarray but which maintains all is fine as long as Simon has her soulmate—speak on behalf of the artist's new priorities and the gravity of strong relationships.

 

Musically, Hotcakes is appointed with first-rate session work from a stream of Hall of Fame-worthy instrumentalists. Robbie Robertson, Michael Brecker, Bucky Pizzarelli, Dr. John, and Taylor are among the guests gracing the arrangements with nimble touches and heartfelt accents indicative of Simon’s emotionalism. Factor in the tasteful horn sections, excellent backing vocal tracks, and producer Richard Perry’s illustrative orchestrations, and Hotcakes may reign as Simon’s finest-ever studio hour.

 

 

Carly Simon Hotcakes Track Listing:

 

1. Safe and Sound

2. Mind on My Man

3. Think I’m Gonna Have a Baby

4. Older Sister

5. Just Not True

6. Hotcakes

7. Misfit

8. Forever My Love

9. Mockingbird

10. Grownup

11. Haven’t Got Time for the Pain

 

 

Mobile Fidelity believes that mastering systems should be neutral and transparent. The essential idea is to unveil all the detailed musical information on the original master recording without adding deterioration, coloration or other sonic artifacts. 

It is worth noting that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stands out as one of few record labels that independently invests in research and development of audio technology. With proprietary innovations such as GAIN 2™, general music enthusiasts and audiophiles alike have reaped the benefit of a higher consumer audio standard without investing in costly new hardware. Mobile Fidelity is pleased to work with a variety of engineering legends and companies including Tim de Paravicini, Ed Meitner, Pass Labs, Theta Digital and Sony Electronics. 

Our joint efforts to seek out the ultimate audio experience, has resulted in significant advances for the technology of music reproduction. 

GAIN 2™ Mastering Technology for Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD and Ultradisc II™ 24kt Gold CDs 

For over twenty years, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has continually searched for the ultimate audio experience. During this search MFSL engineers and associates created The GAIN™ System, a proprietary mastering technology which brought warmth and ambience to the compact disc format. A few years ago - with higher resolution formats on the horizon - the vision of GAIN 2™ began. As it stands today, GAIN 2™ is one of the greatest technical advancements in analogue and digital technology in the last ten years. It consists of a series of critical modifications and new components to Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering chain. 

We feel that GAIN 2™ has come extremely close to meeting this goal. The key accomplishments of GAIN 2™ System are 1) the ability to extract all the musical information as possible through the Ultra High bandwidth analogue tape playback system with proprietary custom tape playback heads, reproducer electronics and 2) transparently capturing and storing that information with the Direct Stream Digital recording system.